Digital Commons Network^™

A Case Of Design-Enabled Public Policy Formulation Process, Diana Pamela Villa Alvarez, Valentina Auricchio, Marzia Mortati

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Governments are increasingly applying design practices to address public challenges. While the study of these practices evidences their utility for designing public services, the specific design activities and their value for policy formulation are rather unclear. To shed light in this direction, this paper presents a case study on the collaboration of LABgobar and SENASA in reforming the Bovine Tuberculosis regulations in Argentina. By analysing the project’s documentation and interviewing project members, this study illustrates design practices that complement traditional policy formulation processes. These practices include methods for problem understanding and reframing, idea generation, and collaborative policy prototyping. Interestingly, these …

Studying Interaction Design Practices With Theory Instruments, Jacob Buur, Mette Gislev Kjærsgaard, Jessica Sorenson, Ayşe Özge Ağça

DRS Biennial Conference Series

From previous research we learned that (1) interaction designers are experiencing new challenges in response to increasing digitalization, and that (2) current methods and conceptual frameworks seem insufficient for addressing these challenges. In this paper, we explore how playing with theoretical con-cepts in tangible ways may allow practitioners to gain new perspectives on cur-rent practices, challenges and possibilities. We introduce a set of Design Anthro-pological Theory Instruments to bring social theory into conversations with prac-titioners. Via the instruments, the researchers' data collection process and the participants' reflection processes come together in a collective sense-making ex-perience. Our analysis of video recordings …

Shitty Stories: Experimenting With Probiotic Participation Through Design, Tau Lenskjold, Danielle Wilde

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The Shit! project brings focus to the human-gut microbiome, to consider how we might move towards more harmonious coexistence with the uncountable microscopic entities that inhabit our gut. The work recognizes humans as multi-species assemblages, and the Western scientific models that form how we conceptualize, measure and engage with ourselves as embodied species, insufficient to account for the multiplicity of relational scales at play. We present a workshop undertaken with the Danish Colitis and Crohn’s Patient Association that converges food, fæces and performativity. We position this work as an exploration of what we provisionally term probiotic participation through design. Framed …

Disciplinarity And The Modes Of Legal Design, Michael Doherty

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines the emerging field of Legal Design through a critical reflection on the literature on academic disciplines and disciplinarity and argues that Legal Design does meet the criteria for recognition as an emerging academic sub-discipline. Its central contention is that Legal Design academics (together with their collaborative partners) have a timely opportunity to intentionally design the modalities of their nascent discipline. Academic disciplines can be understood in various ways. Whether this is, for example, from a sociological or an anthropological perspective, Legal Design has the chance to examine the human experience of disciplinarity and to consciously build an …

Museum And Exhibit Design: How Forms And Places Of Knowledge Exchange Influence Community Participation And Empowerment, Sophie Nakashima, Chiara Del Gaudio

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Museums have been criticized for sharing a singular narrative that does not reflect the diverse beliefs and values of their communities. Participatory design has been recognized as an approach capable of processes that allow communities to contribute to designing museums and exhibits. However, as the participatory design processes change according to the specific situation, they can lead to a wide range of outcomes, and degrees of community participation. This paper explores how a specific element of the participatory design approach, knowledge exchange, influences the degree of community participation. Three examples of participatory design processes in museum and exhibit design are …

The Power In Maps: Reviewing A ‘Youth Violence’ Systems Map As Discursive Intervention, Jocelyn Bailey, Lorraine Gamman

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper offers a reflection on a systems mapping experiment undertaken as part of the Redesign Youth Futures project, which aimed to visualise the complex system producing youth violence in London. The paper brings together key ideas in the practice of systems thinking and mapping, with contributions from the literature on design and power, to theorise the map as an intervention in a discourse – in this case, the popular and policy discourse around youth violence. In doing so, it offers an account of how power is operant in and through such an artefact: in the embodiment of (and resistance …

Preparing For The Pluriverse: Embracing Critical Self-Reflection In Service Design Practice, Shivani Prakash

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores how service designers in the public sector can embrace a lens of cultural plurality in their daily design practice. When designing for public services, a gap between the cultural assumptions of the designer and diverse residents is going to emerge. If this gap is not addressed, service design risks enacting harmful oppressive structures. This study develops a process model based on a research through design approach. It describes how a generative feedback loop of critical self-reflection negotiated within design practice could support designers to begin embracing cultural plurality along with concrete examples. The process model addresses the …

Toward A Method Of Psychological Ownership Mapping, Michelle Cedeño, Weston Baxter, Talya Porat, Joann Peck

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The mental state in which an individual claims an object as theirs is called psychological ownership. Psychological ownership is associated with motives, routes, affordances, and outcomes directly linked to attachment. This research introduces a qualitative method for psychological ownership mapping. Ownership mapping seeks to explain the changes in a user’s psychological ownership of a target over time. Previous studies suggested conceptual pathways of ownership. This method extends current research on ownership as it offers a viable application. The method has been tested with over 100 students and is an easy, flexible, and adaptable to many different contexts. We believe that …

Weaving With Design Research To Study Children’S Everyday Practices In Cancer Care Environments, Piet Tutenel, Stefan Ramaekers, Ann Heylighen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Children affected by cancer often require repeated hospitalisations. The impact of the material hospital environment on children's well-being receives growing attention across various disciplines. Yet, because of their ‘double vulnerability’ – being children and being ill – young people affected by cancer are less considered as direct research participants. We set out to put the experiences of these children at the centre of attention. To do justice to the complexity of their interactions with the material hospital environment, we brought together concepts and insights from childhood studies; scholarship in anthropology and philosophy; theories on materiality; and design research; and combined …

Systemic Design's Guidelines To Implement Organizational Change, Caterina Rosini, Silvia Barbero

DRS Biennial Conference Series

: In the future, organisations must face sudden changes and increase competitiveness. Firms need to have resources and competencies to set a strategic advantage in the business context to survive. This paper describes two management models used to define strategy and implement benefits for the firm and compares them with a systemic framework and the Systemic Design Approach. The comparison highlights the necessity to analyse organisations considering their complexity in terms of resources and interactions between spheres and roles. This evidence led us to sustain that Systemic Design can provide a better approach to organisational complexity and could be able …

Articulating Theories Of Change Towards More Just And Transformative Design Practices, Hillary Carey, Madeline Sides, Erica Dorn

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In any collaborative change-making process, team members hold individual, and often differing, ideas about how change happens. These ideas may address whether to work top-down or bottom-up, what leverage points are to be targeted, or who should be involved in the work, in what capacity, and when. If these differences in perspectives are not examined and discussed, they can lead to conflicting actions, lessen positive impact, and may even do harm. Mapping “Theories of Change” is an approach that has been used to clarify strategies for initiating change across many sectors. Yet, when it comes to complex design engagements, we …

An Analysis Of Master's In Industrial Design Theses At Us Land-Grant Universities: A Systematic Literature Review, Byungsoo Kim, Hernan Gregorio

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study systematically reviewed recent (2016-2021) Industrial Design (ID) master theses and final projects at U.S. land grant universities to understand the trend of ID graduate program outcomes from the selected universities. The process consisted of 1) framing questions for a review, 2) identifying relevant works, 3) assessing the quality of studies, 4) summarizing the evidence, and 5) interpreting the findings. This paper presents the findings of the study, including thesis/final project research types, the diversity of committees, fields of design influences that the thesis/final project contribute to, types of outcomes, and the utilized research methodologies. Furthermore, the author discusses …

Constructing A Critical Anthropology Of Contemporary Design Practices, Jocelyn Bailey

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper articulates a critical approach to researching design as a contemporary phenomenon that was developed through my doctoral research. The approach - critical anthropology of design - is a combination of anthropology of design, critical strategies borrowed from other fields, and a ‘Foucauldian’ theoretical toolkit, which together allow us to see design as a complex disciplinary apparatus. I advocate for such an approach – a switching of the disciplinary lens when studying design, and a more sceptical engagement between social disciplines and design – as essential for both robust critique and original insight. Such an approach is productive and …

Values And Challenges In Rapid Prototyping Of Global Health Policies, Mariana Fonseca Braga, Shiau Yun Chong, Emmanuel Tsekleves, Michael James Penkunas, Louise Mullagh, Harvy Joy Canlas Liwanag, Emma Louise Margaret, Nadiah Tengku Adnan

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper identifies the value and challenges in introducing rapid prototyping of policy to design non-expert and expert groups by analysing an online workshop series that was conducted with early-career professionals, policy makers, and design researchers. The COVID-19 pandemic evidenced, even more, the need for situated policies in the area of health as global health policies were ineffective in addressing livelihood diversity, particularly of underserved communities. Therefore, the untapped potential of rapid prototyping for policy making in the area of global health is explored. We particularly analyse the creativity of the different groups who joined the workshop series and point …

Supporting Research On Gender And Design Amongst Steam Researchers In The Souths: A Case Study Of Subsumption In Design Methods, Chiara Del Gaudio, Bjarki Hallgrimsson, Dominique Marshall

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper tells the story of a research program that subsumed the approaches of design, arts and social sciences to enhance gender aware and inclusive research amongst twenty academic teams of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics located in the Souths. These are the findings of our empirical exploration to support the emergence of a transdisciplinary area of research and practice which we defined as Gendered Design. The key factors that proved crucial to overcome disciplinary boundaries and catalyse processes of empowerment are: theoretical and methodological openness, design-driven strategy and experimentation, as well as a holistic and affective approach to …

Design Beyond The Human World Of Management And Organizations: Towards A Cosmology For The Anthropocene, Emmanuel Bonnet, Diego Landivar, Alexandre Monnin, Ulises Navarro Aguiar

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In this paper, we intend to make explicit the shared ontological foundation of design and management and question them in light of the advent of the Anthropocene. To do so, we first draw these disciplines closer before qualifying their common ground as an underlying “cosmology they share”. This cosmology is characterized by the centrality of the notion of organization. We argue that design as well as design knowledge must be assessed with regards to this peculiar cosmology. We call for the need to go beyond what we call the “monism of organizations” or the “organized world”. We propose a new …

Project Proximities: A Meta Review Of How Design Addresses Distance In Complex Collaborations, Rosie Hornbuckle

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Complex collaborations involving multiple disciplines and stakeholders are seen as necessary in the pursuit of transformative innovation. Yet these ‘systemic’ science & technology-led projects pose a challenge for knowledge exchange, co-creation and co-operation. Design research teams brought in, often to work on tangible outcomes, are faced with chasms between the understanding of diverse actors. From this problematization of distances in complex collaboration, a new design research practice has emerged: 'translational design practice' (Page & John 2019). This paper builds on this concept through a ‘meta’ level review of the design research approaches in three European publicly-funded consortium projects to address …

The Evolution Of Inclusive Design: A First Timeline Review Of Narratives And Milestones Of Design For Disability, Luka Kille-Speckter, Farnaz Nickpour

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper sets out to critically review the history of Inclusive Design on two distinct levels, i.e. the narratives that shape it and the historical milestones which contribute to its evolution. Through an illustrative review of literature and object ethnography, two sets of timelines are outlined. First, a milestone timeline helps establish the chronological evolution of Inclusive Design based on historical milestones and sociocultural perspectives. Second, a narrative timeline helps uncover the underlying narratives around matters of disability, design and inclusivity, and how they evolved. Though identifying historical and emerging shifts in mentality, the timeline review of narratives and milestones …

Designing Data Interaction In Exhibitions Contexts, Lorenza Abbate, Cristina Marino

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Nowadays, the primary purpose of information representation is to support users in understanding complex phenomena. Avoiding the 'black hole between data and knowledge" means research tools and methods that help people experience and benefit from this data. Through the analysis of case studies, the contribution aims to provide an overview of existing data visualization and physicalization techniques that enable participatory processes with users. This contribution focuses on interactive data visualizations, particularly on installations in museums, exhibitions or events that involve the user in an active and participatory way. These types of activities offer a simple but effective way to make …

Designing Proximity With Situated Stakeholders, Davide Fassi, Francesco Vergani

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Neighborhoods are becoming laboratories to test new ways to design the cities to solve social, environmental and cultural issues affecting global cities. The car-centered urban planning experienced in the 20th century has fostered researchers and practitioners to explore more the theme of livability and proximity. To trigger the blossoming of these models, a participatory process involving proactive networks of situated stakeholders is needed. This paper shows how competences from the academic realm can effectively boost civic awareness on the role that situated stakeholders have in producing solutions for their own wellbeing. It highlights a process enacted by the XX Lab …

Designing With Theories: Producing Legal Design Diffractively In Courts Of Justice, Joaquin Santuber, Jonathan A. Edelman

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper proposes Designing with Theories as an invitation to approach Legal De-sign practices and studies differently. We take advantage of a rich and diverse theoretical tradition that allows us to expand the applications and impact of Legal Design. Building on diffraction as a methodology, we articulate this invitation by suggesting seven theories and approaches to designing for justice differently. In a generative and provocative style, we ask seven times the question “what if we design for justice from X theory?”. For each theory, we provide the main assumptions, followed by sense-making with examples from a case study on Chilean …

Performative Modes Of Inquiry As Everyday Theatre, Maria Foverskov

DRS Biennial Conference Series

I aim to strengthen Social Design inquiries by introducing lenses from Performance Studies and Design Anthropology for acquiring better understandings of how social designers navigate performative processes of practice research. I draw upon experiences in co-producing performative modes of inquiries as an everyday theatre. A design research project supporting citizens, public and private partners in different ways in which communities of senior citizens could be supported in organizing and meeting up for social and outdoor exercise activities on an ad-hoc basis. I show how knowledges is bodily co-produced and performed through multiple partners co-scripting the performance of an everyday theatre, …

Fuzzy Logic Evaluation Of Customer Loyalty In Local, Community, And International Cafes In Hong Kong, Bharati Das, Sylvia Xihui Liu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

It is a company’s paramount goal to achieve customer loyalty and expand its business. The effectiveness of these business strategies is relative to customer loyalty which is often pursued through a binary approach. This paper primarily focuses on a non-binary approach using Mamdani Fuzzy logic to measure customer loyalty and compares the outcomes with a binary approach. Also, the customer loyalty factors, including repeat patronage and relative attitude, are explored. Further, a comparison of loyalty towards various cafe categories in Hong Kong is presented. Customer Loyalty Matrix has been used to classify the above cafes based on the loyalty factors. …

Value-Drive Design Approach To Envision Speculative Futures, Yihyun Lim, Bumjin Kim

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper presents a design approach that brings together speculative design, value-sensitive design, and emotion-based ethnographic method to identify value-experiences for the design of value-driven speculative futures. The paper discusses the approach in five steps; 1) emotion-based design ethnography, 2) visual mapping and value-extraction, 3) secondary research of technology and socio-cultural trends and filtering of technologies based on its interpreted value-experiences, 4) design of value-driven future scenarios, 5) materializing scenarios as discursive prototypes. We explore COVID19 pandemic as a context of research-through-design inquiry in developing this approach.

Musings On Vocabulary Choices When Proposing Design Towards Profound Systems Change, Gwendolyn Kulick

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The search for an imaginative vocabulary that encourages mind and behaviour shifts is not an easy task in processes of formulating design trajectories towards profound systems change. At the same time many design concerns are embedded in larger ecological, social, economical or political systemic crises and call for generating systems change across multiple dimensions. A prolonged terminology search when describing the theoretical and practical results of a PhD research into Pakistan’s craft sector through the systems lens triggered the interest in penning this paper about the entanglements of language and expanded design horizons and methods. While it can only offer …

Birds, Bees And Bats: Exploring Possibilities For Cohabitation In The More-Than-Human City, Ferne Edwards, Ida Maria Corsepius Melen, Anna Caroline Syse, Ida Nilstad Pettersen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Urbanization pressures are creating conditions for greater urban density. However, cities are home for both humans and a diversity of nonhuman natures, where heightened proximity between species can cause friction and conflict. This paper explores possibilities for convivial multispecies cohabitation in more-than-human cities. It grounds more-than-human theory through the application of three case studies – birds, bees and bats – based in the city of Trondheim, Norway. Drawing on three related studies, these creatures help illuminate what kind of spaces, needs and considerations are required beyond a human-centric focus in the urban environment. Issues to consider include disease, insecure land …

Mutant In The Mirror: Queer Becomings With Ai, Grace Leonora Turtle

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper contributes to scholarly discourse on design and AI by using queerness as a theoretical grounding to explore potentialities for design to interface with and imagine artificial intelligence (AI) differently. The paper does so by reporting on an autotheoretical experiment in which I pose the questions: What if we understood AI as queer, a kind of mutant, in a state of becoming; a dynamic, relational, non-binary gender variant? How then might AI show up in and act on the world (with us humans) differently? The experiment uses a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to unsettle how AI is understood today, …

Deep Listening: A Framework For Collaborative Climate Adaptation, Eric Gordon, Yihyun Lim, James Paradis, Tomas Guarna, Gabriela Degetau, Mona Vijaykumar

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article introduces Deep Listening, a novel transdisciplinary research agenda and framework for collaborative climate adaptation. It argues for the urgency to develop a communication approach in understanding how frontline communities interact with mediating institutions. Deep Listening is presented in five components: 1) knowledge sharing (mutually agreed upon protocols for data production and use); 2) holding space (co-creating spaces where institutional actors and communities can exchange, learn from each other and discuss); 3) the production and sharing of climate imaginaries (where local or Indigenous knowledge and community values are respected); 4) sensemaking with a diversity of perspectives and scientific data; …

Hybrid Economies In Hybrid Cities Built On Manufacturing, Networks, And Design, Carla Sedini

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The concept of networks will be analyzed through a Hybrid Economy model, looking at new organizational forms and new multi-actor collaborations; Evolutionary Economic Geography defines these as interested in both social and financial returns, and it identifies institutions as particularly relevant in the success of these new enterprises. Six main factors that define the hybridity of a business and an enterprise have been identified: Offer; Goals and impacts; Founders composition; Team/Staff composition; (Relationship with) customers. To test this approach, we decided to analyze qualitative data collected during a research project which involved two sister cities: Milano and Chicago. The paper …

Diversity And Multi-Cultural Education In The 21st Century: An Oer / Coil / Ztc Course Text, Oluremi "Remi" Alapo

Open Educational Resources

CLDV100 (Liberal Arts) Introduction to Multicultural Studies in the 21st Century: 3 hrs. 3 crs.

A study of what culture is; how it influences the choices we make; how to deal positively with conflicts that inevitably arise in working/living situations with people of diverse cultures. It is a course structured to raise multicultural awareness and fortify students' social skills in dealing with cultural differences. It includes an ethnographic study of cultural groups in the U.S.A. Through the study of cultural concepts, this course develops skills in critical thinking, writing, and scholarly documentation. Not open to students with credit in CLDV …